Wiki

=Wiki=
 * What is a Wiki? Wikis are editable online websites. **

Wikispaces is an Online collaborative tool that allows more than one person to work on a Webpage and instantly publish it. Wikispaces allows you to embed media, and upload files to the space.

A wiki is a web site that lets any visitor become a participant: you can create or edit the actual site contents without any special technical knowledge or tools. A wiki is continuously "under revision". You do not need to have any web creation software installed on your computer and more than one person can edit the same page from any computer with internet access. This means that if more than one person is collaborating on a site, then you will never get confused as you can with email about what is the latest update is always on the wiki. Also, as you can edit the wiki from anywhere, it is a far more flexible tool. You can also load up files to a wiki so that everyone canIt is a living collaboration whose purpose is the sharing of the creative process and product by many. One famous example is Wiki-pedia, an online encyclopedia with no "authors" but millions of contributors and editors. The "wiki" comes from Hawaiian language, meaning "quick" or "fast"


 * [|Video: Wikis in Plain English] - A short and concise introduction to wikis (3:52) produced by Lee Lefever for [|The Common Craft Show].

Wiki's are a great way to get your voice heard on the Net. You can start a wiki about anything you want. This allows you to discuss something that's important to you while at the same time getting opinions and information from other people that visit your wiki. Allow your readers to become part of your Web site. They can add their ideas to your wiki and make your site that much better.

Your wiki can notify you any time a change is made to your site and it keeps a record of version of each page so if someone makes a change you don't like you can just revert the page to the previous version.

**Who uses wikis?**

Wikis are used in the “real world” (outside of K-12 schools) by people collaborating on projects or trying to share things online, such as family information and photos, technical information from users of a product, data from a research and development project, wine expertise, travel journals from abroad, club or specialty information, or projects like collaborative cookbooks.

Sometimes they are used for free expression, such as a youth group online graffiti space. College and university courses seem to be using wikis far more than the K-12 community right now.

**W****hat is the difference between a wiki and a blog?**

A blog, or web log, shares writing and multimedia content in the form of “posts” (starting point entries) and “comments” (responses to the posts). While commenting, and even posting, are open to the members of the blog or the general public, no one is able to change a comment or post made by another. The usual format is post-comment-comment-comment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are often the vehicle of choice to express individual opinions.

A wiki has a far more open structure and allows others to change what one person has written. This openness may trump individual opinion with group consensus.

**Wikispaces**
Please go to [|wikispaces] and create an account. We will utilize this wiki throughout the course.

User Name: FirstNameSocialMedia - example DawnSocialMedia

Click Get Started



__ **The Basics** __

* Click on 'Edit This Page' * You can then start typing directly onto the page. * If you want to format your text in any way, you will need to highlight the text you want to change and then use the buttons on the toolbar.

=**__Where can I create a wiki?__**=

**Wikispace****s**  This wiki provider has a special deal going for teachers at the moment. Teachers can go straight onto Wikispaces mid-level pricing plan for free as long as the wiki is being used for education. This means that you can get a wiki with no advertising, the ability to make the wiki private to a select group, and you can also have more customisable templates and themes. Wikispaces is also generous with their data limit which is why I am using them for this site. The limit is 2GB+ of storage (if you really need to go over for legitimate reasons they say to email them and it will be fine).

= **[|Peanut Butter Wiki]** = 

Does not have as much storage space as a Wikispace wiki which could be a problem with larger projects.

**WetPaint Wiki** These wikis are very attractive with their range of template options and are easy to use. The only problem with them is that they have advertising from Google Ads as well as links to other WetPaint Wikis which you are not able to remove from your site. With some links going to rapper websites you may want to think carefully about this option. However, they are definitely some of the best looking wikis out there.



**PikiWi k **i  This wiki enables you to add blocks of content to your wiki page so that you can set it out any way you like. You can record directly into a block with your webcam or record an audio track only. Internet Explorer users can drag and drop content onto the page from their own files.

**Zoho Wiki**  Sign up for a free Zoho account and a wiki is just one of the many free online services you can have. The wikis are customizable and you can set the level of privacy without paying at all. I have just discovered this wiki and am really impressed so far. Other things you can do is make online presentations, worksheets, documents, and more.


 * Ways in which you can use a wiki.**

1. Create It Without Any Code The best part about a wiki, you don't need to learn any new software, or install anything, or upload any files to your computer. You also don't need to know HTML or any other type of programming language. You just need to type into your browser. Simple.

2. Create an Interactive Photo Album Do you have a site online where you host your photos so your friends and family can come see them? Now you can take your online photo album to a whole new level. Move your photos to your wiki and allow your friends and family to add comments, backgrounds, stories about the photos, or anything else they want. Maybe they could even add photos of their own, if you want them too.

3. Plan a Special Event Try out this scenario. You have a special event coming up, let's say a wedding or a graduation, or maybe a family reunion. You want to know who's coming, if they're bringing guests, how long they're planning on staying, what hotel they're staying at, and what else they may be bringing. By having them post their information on the wiki, you can better plan your party, and they can plan to do things with other people who are coming to the party too. Maybe they want to stay in the same hotel or meet someone somewhere.

4. Create a Tribute or Memorial Do you have someone or something that you want to create a tribute or memorial to? A wiki is great for this. You can post information about the person, place or event, and other people can post their ideas, feelings, and facts they know about the person or event. This can be about anything you want; you're favorite rock star or TV show, or someone you lost that is dear to you, or an event like September 11, the Tsunami of December 1994, or a war. It's ultimately up to you, after all, it's your wiki.

5. Involve Your Group Are you involved in a group of some kind; a sport, church, after school activities? Create a wiki for it. You can keep your members up to date on the latest events and other things. They can let you know if they can come to the events, or if they want to help out and what they can do. This can be immensely useful to both you and them.

6. Create a Design For Your Wiki? All you, or your wiki's readers have to do to make a change to a wiki is click a button, edit the page, and click another button. The WYSIWYG type editor that most wikis have will let you do all sorts of things with your wiki, and you don't have to know anything about coding or Web design to do it. Change colors, add photos, add backgrounds and have fun.

7. Get Other People to Fix Your Typos Did you ever upload a Web page to your site with an error on it? Then months later someone emails you about the error and you think, "Oh no, this errors been up for months, hundreds of people have seen it, they must think I'm an idiot for making this error." Worry no more. With a wiki the person who notices the error can quickly fix it himself, no problem. Now only one person has seen your error. I don't just mean spelling errors. Maybe you have your facts wrong about something important, they can fix that too.

8. Update Information With a Click The ability to easily update information is another great thing about a wiki. Let's say your wiki is about your favorite rock star. He's done something and you didn't hear about it, but one of your readers did. That person can come to your wiki and add the new information to the wiki in minutes. Now your wiki's up to date again. If that person had his facts wrong then the next person who comes along and reads what he wrote can fix it too.

9. Get Your Wiki Online For Free There are many different [|wiki hosting sites] on the Net where you can start your own wiki. My personal favorite is [|WikiSpaces], but that's only because it's the one I use.

10. Add Videos, Chat and Blogs You can even add [|videos right from YouTube] to your wiki. It's just as easy as adding a YouTube video to any site. Just find the video you like and add the code. If you want a completely interactive wiki then you'll want to add chat so you and your readers can chat with each other. This is especially good for wikis that are geared toward a group or a family. [|Gabbly Live Chat] makes it really easy for you to add chat to your wiki. If you're a blogger and you have a Blogger blog you can [|add your Blogger blog] to your wiki. Your readers will no longer have to go from one site to the other to read all about you. They can read your blog right from the wiki.